Vani makes most of Aramco debut with top-10 finish in Jeddah

By Rahul Banerji

Vani Kapoor made her Aramco Team Series debut one to remember with a top-10 finish at the Jeddah event on Saturday that was won by Dubai-based German teenager Chiara Noja in a playoff.

The team title too was decided after regulation play in favour of Nicole Garcia’s side who had tied with Hero Women’s Indian Open winner Christine Wolf’s team.

In the individual competition, Noja shot a final round of seven-under par 65 to tie early leader Charley Hull of England before winning the second playoff hole for her maiden Ladies European Tour title.

Vani made the most of her outing at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club with rounds of 69, 70 and 69 to finish with an eight-under 208 aggregate in the 54-hole competition.

On Saturday, the Gurgaon golfer swapped two birdies for one dropped shot on her outbound nine and picked up three shots on the way home against one further bogey.

It left her in a share of eighth place in the $500,000 event alongside 2021 winner Pia Babnik of Slovenia and Scotland’s Laura Breverige.

Amandeep Drall (74-70-72) was the next best of the four Indians making the cut in Jeddah in tied 49^th on level par 216, Diksha Dagar (71-72-74) was T58th on 217, and Tvesa Malik (71-74-73) sole 63^rd on two-over 218.

Deciding putt

Noja made a birdie on the first playoff hole putting pressure on English star Hull, but she duly rolled in her birdie putt as well, ladieseuropeantour.com said.

The two returned to hole 18 for the second time but this time it was 16-year-old Noja who rolled in her birdie putt to clinch her maiden LET title.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in quite yet! I think the stress and happiness will come later this evening,” said the teenager, who finished second on the LET Access Series Order of Merit in 2022.

“It is hard work over a lot of years, and a lot of commitment and just trying not to back out of shots and commit to everything that I do and not be afraid to fail.”

South Africa’s Garcia had a great final day with an eagle putt on 18 to finish third on 12-under-par, Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta was fourth just one shot further back.

England’s Bronte Law and South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace finished T5 with Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall in seventh place.

At the end of day two, Team Garcia and Team Wolf finished tied at the top of the leaderboard on 29-under-par each and both teams contested the playoff on Saturday afternoon.

Team Garcia made up of South Africans Garcia and Casandra Alexander alongside Czech Tereza Melecka and Moroccan amateur Sonia Bayahya chose Alexander to contest the playoff on 18.

Leading the way

For Team Wolf –Austria’s Christine Wolf, Scotland’s Beveridge, Alexandra Swayne of the US Virgin Islands and Saudi amateur Raghdah Alessawi – it was the captain who took the responsibility.

The players went back down to 18 and Alexander managed to make the green in two, while Wolf chose to lay up and it was the South African who nailed her birdie putt for Team Garcia to win.

And it is a second win in an Aramco Team Series event for each of the professionals with Garcia victorious in London earlier this year, Melecka in Sotogrande and Alexander in the inaugural Team event in 2020.

Following the Jeddah result, Diksha Dagar is 54^th on the Race to Costa Del Sol order of merit, Vani Kapoor 59^th, Amandeep Drall 62^nd, Aditi Ashok 99^th, and Tvesa Malik 116^th.

Also read: Vani leads full Indian complement past Aramco Series Jeddah cut